Reviews

As the families of violent crime victims have been more vocal about their feelings regarding pop culture adaptations of their stories, Ive been a little more reflective about my engagement with such films.

Barnabys best hope is a fellow child, Chrissie (Mary Badham), who decides to help Barnaby take out his uncle.

The film leans predictably into forcing romance between Roger and Lillian and between Fabian and Babette.

From the dizzying heights of that opening sequence, which firmly establishes both the relationship dynamics between Leonardo and Flavia and the floating unreality of the film, things even out just a bit.

From a visual standpoint I was very drawn to this film and how much mood it gets just out of placing its main character in these different locations.

What is undeniable about this film, however, is the degree of craft and intention, even when that intention runs fully counter to what most people would consider the elements of a good movie.

My initial reaction to watching this film was that it was a knock off of High Plains Drifter, but it actually precedes that film by a good few years.

The strength of this film (aside from the completely insane last 5 minutes) lies in the strangeness of whats happening in Montags magic shows, and the films total refusal to commit to a real point of view.

Whatever else happens in the film, Alans cold-blooded murder of the women is the most chilling element, and yet the movie uses them as set-pieces and not a real part of Alans character arc.

The film is so embedded in Streets point of view, that I genuinely have a hard time separating out if the film thinks women are money-hungry monsters who drive men to extremes, or if thats just Streets point of view on the women in his life.